Anti-profiteering

NJEA and New Jersey residents share a sig­nificant concern over the intrusion of private business interests into public education. Public education represents a major investment by New Jersey taxpayers. It is imperative that those resources help children, not CEOs. While public schools generally have very high financial ac­countability standards designed to prevent the misuse or misappropriation of education funds, there are areas where those safeguards could be strengthened.

NJEA will support legislation to prevent corporations and private, for-profit interests from fattening their bottom lines at the expense of students. In particular, we will push to outlaw conflicts of interest in which board members of charter schools, or members of their families, have any employment or financial interest in a company that provides education manage­ment services to New Jersey charter schools. And we will advocate for more open bidding of contracts, so that taxpayers can see how public funds are used.